How to control a remote using a smart phone

Hi Sean,

A few more questions:

(1) Is your garage within coverage of your home WiFi?

(2) Is the smartphone expected to be within coverage of your home WiFi when controlling the garage door?

(3) Is the smartphone expected to be a short distance (say 10 meters or less) when controlling the garage door? If longer than 10 meters, what is the maximum expected distance?

(4) Will the smartphone user be inside their vehicle when controlling the garage door, or does the user expect to be able to control from the smarrphone regardless of whether they are in their vehicle or not?

The reason for questions 1-3 is that if a long operational distance is required, then that may need either a cloud service, or (worse) messing about with the home router to open up ports (never recommended).

The reason for question 4 is to see if additional hardware (e.g. transmitter) within the car could be an option (controlled by smartphone).

1) Yes.

2) Yes

3) Yes

4) Yes

I have a garage door that provides access to a number of farm vehicles. Vehicles are in and out of the garage daily, Many times with different drivers. The garage/office has wifi. I was thinking maybe an app on drivers phones would give them access to the garage door opener.

If the solution worked in one garage their are others that would benefit.

I have little experience outside a computer networks. I was thinking bluetooth to an Arduino that supports it would give me the conductivity from the driver. Just not sure of the phone end. I started to look at iRobbie and thought I don't want to spend a whole lot of time developing. Thumb the phone app and trigger the door through a bluetooth connection seemed a simple idea. How difficult is the phone part?

1) Yes.

2) Yes

3) Yes

4) Yes

I have a garage door that provides access to a number of farm vehicles. Vehicles are in and out of the garage daily, Many times with different drivers. The garage/office has wifi. I was thinking maybe an app on drivers phones would give them access to the garage door opener.

If the solution worked in one garage their are others that would benefit.

I have little experience outside a computer networks. I was thinking bluetooth to an Arduino that supports it would give me the conductivity from the driver. Just not sure of the phone end. I started to look at iRobbie and thought I don't want to spend a whole lot of time developing. Thumb the phone app and trigger the door through a bluetooth connection seemed a simple idea. How difficult is the phone part?

Hm, that's suddenly increased the complexity greatly, when you mention that many different drivers need access. The complexity will depend on how much security is required.

Your need is actually a complete solution, providing secure access to many users. I think it's too ambitious to want to develop this from scratch unless familiar with the technologies.

It's not the same as just remotely controlling a device from a phone for a few select trusted friends or family.

There may be ready-made offerings, I'm not aware of them, so if you were completely set on doing it DIY-style:

Originally, I was going to suggest something like Pi Pico could be used, since it has both Bluetooth and WiFi, and it would be quite straightforward to have a simple page that works on Android and iPhone, to communicate over BLE or WiFi depending on what's preferred.

But, since more security is needed, then probably a Raspberry Pi or similar is required, to at least log when people open/close the door. Users could be required to authenticate with a password, but then that may entail sending and receiving data (not just a simple transmission), plus writing some JavaScript at a minimum, so it's no longer a quick thing to implement. Still feasible though, but not a quick thing, it would need software development.

If you want a basic minimum viable product that would have the flexibility for implementing some form of authentication or using rolling codes or whatever, but initially would just be a very basic not very secure method until more code was written, then you could use a Raspberry Pi, running code that makes it operate as a 'BLE Peripheral', perhaps waiting for a passcode (and locking for a minute if the wrong passcode is entered) and connected via GPIO to your remote control (e.g. using a relay). 

At the mobile end, you'd need to write a single HTML file that makes the phone connect via BLE (the most basic thing could be for the user to type say a 4-digit passcode that is hard-coded on the Pi).

The HTML file could either be e-mailed to the people that require access, or could be placed on the Internet (it would be useless to those who are unauthorized, since they would not have the passcode).

The above is not very secure, but none of the hardware would need to be swapped out to make it more secure; simply, the code would need to be developed.

As you can see, there's still a lot to learn if you're new to this. To use a Raspberry Pi as a BLE Peripheral, the search term is 'node.js Bleno' for one method of doing it (there are other ways too). To write a HTML file with some JavaScript to communicate using BLE, the search term is 'Web Bluetooth API'.

All the above could be eliminated if there's any ready-made solution, but I don't know of one, hence there's all the coding effort.

Personally, I think it's best to simply place a keypad near the garage door, make users type a code, and you could change the code periodically, That's still low-security, but way simpler to do, using any Arduino and waterproof keypad. If you use say a Pi Pico for that, then you could set the code over WiFi, that would be quite easy.

.

As a side thought, would a prox sensor make the whole system simpler?
as in, if a registered device is nearby the door, open the door.

Using the MAC address of authorized devices. A NFC dongle or a QR code directly on the vehicles would also work. 

You could develop a simple fully automated door opener, using your phone and then no push buttons are involved on custom apps. Simply approach door and the door opens.

I know this will work with most Android phones but you may need to check on the iPhone.

You just need to download the free nRF Connect app and then use the BLE advertising function on the app (this was made possible on phones during Covid).

See section 10 of the user guide: https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/pdf/nRFConnect_BLE_User_Guide_v4.0.0.pdf

Then with an ESP32, or equivalent, you use the BLE scanner example and if it detects your user defined UUID (a user's phone will be advertising this UUID) it will open the door. You can add in a check for RSSI to ensure that only strongest signals cause a trigger action etc.

I've been standing up to my chest in water slapping it with a fly trying to entice the elusive Salmo salar, atlantic salmon to give me 15 minutes of fishing joy. No luck:( Sorry for being tardy, I'm taking a short vacation from retirement and not keeping up with the posts.

I followed up with some more research to discover that I may have bitten off more than I can chew in this project. My thought was a simple on/off slider on a phone. This communicated with a relay. The home rolled simple project. Multiple users, security and more requirements as I continue to explore makes this bigger than it seems. 

Agree, with the phone control with those requirements, it's not a simple product/project, unfortunately, but a whole solution to develop : (

If you treat this like fishing you'll have no bother catching the big one. It starts by choosing the right fly (product) and then spending a bit of time attaching it to the hook (putting the hardware together). Then let your technique and experience do the rest when standing chest deep in water... and, as I'm sure you know, this means having multiple flies in the bag... as the first one you choose might not be the best one.

Just take little steps and take your time.

I was naive to think there would be a simple solution. I like   dougw video listing. The phone part is what keeps me at bay. I haven't dabbled with them. Having a working solution and not bare metal start is what I was looking for.